Police summon ex-pres Gayoom's lawyer

Arrested former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s lawyer Hussain Shameem has been summoned by the police.

Shameem, who is on Gayoom's legal team, was notified to present himself to Police Headquarters before 8 p.m. on Thursday night. He was asked to come in for a questioning, and to take his statement over allegedly false comments he made in a press conference on Tuesday about evidence of a coup attempt obtained by the police.

In the press conference about the arrests of Gayoom, his lawmaker son MP Faris Maumoon and Gayoom's son-in-law Mohamed Nadheem, Shameen had heavily criticized how the police investigations related to his clients were being carried out.

In his comments, Shameen had accused the police of spreading lies about finding a “black bag” of evidence against the alleged coup, saying that President Abdulla Yameen had stated beforehand that such a box would be found. In addition, he had countered the comments by Police about not getting cooperation from some of the individuals arrested in relation to the coup; Shameem claimed that his client Gayoom was not asked any questions even after 180 hours of his arrest.